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home / programmes / research associates / 2000 / process to pleasure
Karen Adcock & Carl Turner / Architecture & Interiors
process to pleasure: instinctive wayfinding at heathrow airport
Project supported by BAA plc
An architectural study which creates a new 'sensory landscape' within Heathrow Terminal 5, introducing a series of designed elements to make the scale of the building more human for all ages and abilities.
The scale and complexity of the modern airport terminal makes wayfinding for even the most experienced traveller difficult. For older users, airports become an especially daunting prospect. This socially inclusive project teamed two RCA architects with the BAA development group designing Terminal 5 at Heathrow. Its aim was to define and explore a range of inclusive design ideas in order to improve instinctive wayfinding for all in what will be, subject to the public enquiry, Europe's largest airport terminal.
The study investigated current practice in airports around the world. Visually impaired travellers were adopted as a lead user group, and user trials were carried out at Heathrow Terminal 4. A 'sensory map' for T5 was overlaid onto the existing framework being developed by the BAA team. This formed an alternative reading of the terminal, comprising a series of pleasurable wayfinding elements - acoustic arches, tactile pathways, spatial launchpads and furniture - designed to manage the scale of the building and enhance the process of moving through it. The project will now go into a second year in order to build and test some of the practical recommendations at Heathrow.